If you visit or live in the Lake Raystown area, you already realize the beauty of the area on so many levels. The Lake attracts thousands of visitors each year into the area for boating, camping, hiking, biking, picnicking, hunting, and numerous other activities. The area is the outdoor person’s Paradise. So, what does visiting or living in the Raystown Lake area have to do with firewood? Here’s the short list:
Firewood is plentiful in the area and economical to buy.
The Raystown area naturally grows many species of trees desirable for heating.
Nothing beats the ambiance of watching a fire burn.
Producing your own firewood heats you twice.
You don’t need to rely on another power source to obtain heat.
Burning firewood is carbon neutral.
- Purchasing firewood helps many local businesses.
1. Firewood is plentiful in the area and economical to buy.
For those not familiar with Lake Raystown, let me give you a quick overview. Raystown Lake is a manmade lake in Huntingdon County encompassing 8,300 acres with the deepest portion of the lake being around 200 feet. It is the largest lake that is entirely located within Pennsylvania state and is primarily located in Huntingdon County. The Lake is a large tourist attraction for the area bringing over a million visitors every year and playing a major role in supporting the local businesses.
Huntingdon County has 551,461 acres of land. Of this land, 409,216 acres are covered with forests. This equates to approximately 74% of the land having tree cover. As this resource is so plentiful, it is only fitting to utilize some of it for firewood. Since supply is plentiful, this creates a very competitive market for selling and results in good competitive pricing for consumers.
Since our business is involved in the sales of firewood, I would like to interject an opinion we have on the processing of firewood. We have secured many wooded acres, and we work with a team of experts in lumber and tree cutting. When we harvest trees, it is done is a very conscientious way. We want our impact on the earth to be as minimal as possible. Without going into a long dissertation of how we attempt this (I will save that for another blog), simply put, we selectively cut trees based on density, tree health, threat to humans, buildings, or livestock, and a list of other reasons. We respect our wildlife and want to minimalize any impact to them. We also respect the mycelium and bacterial layers of the earth, as well as our small wildlife such as turtles, frogs, salamanders, worms, and so forth and try to minimalize earth disturbances. However, we also have to make money to live and try our best to maintain the balance. Some days the balance is extremely personally challenging.
2. The Raystown area naturally grows many species of trees desirable for heating.
Hardwoods are typically the best species of wood for burning. Ash, Cherry, Maple, Oak, Hickory, and Walnut are all hardwoods found locally and burn quite well when seasoned. Seasoned wood is wood that has been air-dried to a moisture content of 20% or less.
If you purchase firewood, it is important to make sure you are buying seasoned wood if you intend to burn it right away. Seasoned wood provides more heat than wet (unseasoned) wood because you lose heat when burning off the excess moisture. In other words, some of the heat is used to evaporate the water in the wood causing a reduction of heat in your living space.
Another very important reason you will want seasoned wood is that wet wood when burned will cause moisture in your flue. Moisture in the flue eventually condenses with other materials forming a substance called creosote. When creosote builds up in a chimney, it may potentially cause a chimney fire. So, please make certain that the wood you are buying is dry prior to burning it for heat.
3. Nothing beats the ambiance of watching a fire burn.
Who doesn’t love to sit and watch a fire? Whether it’s a summer campfire or inside a woodburning stove or fireplace, the comfort from the heat of the fire resonates traditional charm and recalls our history of past centuries. Before our modern lifestyle, the fire was central to so many activities. It was used for cooking. It heated and lit homes. It meant survival in the outdoors if stranded in cold climates. Fire was essential for centuries of generations of our ancestors. Lighting a fire is a celebration of our past. Watching a fire is mesmerizing. Utilizing a fire connects us with our past ancestors. Many memories and stories were passed down the generations while gathering near a fire. Hopefully new memories and stories evolve as you light your fires.
4. Producing your own firewood heats you twice.
I’m sure you all have heard this one before. Yes, firewood heats you twice if you produce your own. Many outdoor enthusiasts enjoy cutting, splitting, and stacking wood for the winter or for camping. Processing firewood is hard work that will make you sweat and keep you physically in shape. It gets you outside in nature and helps you to appreciate the amount of work your ancestors went through just to meet basic needs. So, firewood heats you once physically when producing it and a second time when you burn it.
For us, we know we hand touch every stick of wood prior to burning or selling it. The work involved in obtaining it rewards us with a greater appreciation of the earth and its resources. It drives a conscious effort to not waste it.
5. You don’t need to rely on another power source to obtain heat.
No electric, no problem! Whereas many heating systems require electric to function, a fireplace or woodstove just needs firewood and a way to light it. Wood will ignite at 500 to 550 degrees Fahrenheit if ample oxygen is present. During prolonged periods without electrical service (which seems to happen regularly in the Lake Raystown area), you don’t have to fear being cold, hungry, and in the dark if you have firewood.
6. Burning firewood is carbon neutral.
In today’s climate sensitive world, the burning of firewood has been declared as carbon neutral by the EPA (April 23, 2018, Environmental Protection Agency) assuming that proper management activities are in place to keep the forests alive. The burning of wood is similar to the biological breakdown by deterioration. The difference is time. So, a rotting tree is the same as burning a dead tree when it comes to carbon dioxide.
Let me try to explain this further. Photosynthesis is the process that takes place in a tree that is growing. Photosynthesis involves the tree capturing carbon dioxide and water to produce sugars and release oxygen. The sugars are converted to wood.
When trees die, the reverse occurs. The wood decays along with water and fungi returning the wood to carbon dioxide. Burning wood also returns the wood to carbon, but more quickly.
The largest factor in this theory is the management of woodlands. Newly planted trees will not absorb carbon as quickly as old growth trees which is why a balance and proper management is necessary. Planting one tree for every tree taken is not going to work due to the time necessary for growth. There are many arguments as to what is the proper “management” of woodlands.
For us and our properties, we try to take trees that are already dead or near dead; trees that are a risk factor to people or buildings or livestock; and trees that are growing too close together in which we leave a strong tree to grow rather than a tangled mess of poor growth. We monitor the new tree growth as well. We also work with experts in this field and rely on their advice and choices to manage the woodlands. For this reason, we will never maximize profits on our woodlands based on standards set by large corporations. We know firewood sales are not our “get rich ticket”, but money is not the goal if we are leaving destruction behind. Our theory is we want to make our business as earth friendly as possible, but still carve out a living for us to survive. Our wish is for future generations to look at the properties and realize and cherish the grounds as much as we do.
It should be noted that much of the wood we harvest would rot if not made into firewood. While we do leave some wood to rot because rotten wood is also beneficial to the woodland soil and microbial activity, taking some of the wood in firewood in our opinion is the best use.
7. Purchasing firewood helps many local businesses.
About 60% of the land in Pennsylvania is forest land, and within Huntingdon County about 74% of the land is forest land. Forests are extremely important economically for Pennsylvania and Huntingdon County. Nationally, Pennsylvania is the highest producer of hardwoods with a portion of this income coming from Huntingdon County. Additionally, Huntingdon County relies on the forest lands for tourism activities which generates significant income for the area. Lake Raystown, the main tourist attraction in Huntingdon County, is surrounded by woodland. In addition, the county has many other public and private forest lands.
Since managing our woodlands goes hand-in-hand with attracting tourists to the area, it is critical that we maintain the balance by supporting local firewood producers and other forestry industries that also observe forest sustainability. The forests that attract tourists (and tourism income) help to support non-forestry businesses as well. In 2018, the US Census reported that Huntingdon County has 2,436 non-employer establishments (essentially self-employed) and 821 employer establishments (many of which are small businesses). Keeping the money in our local community helps the economy as a whole. Many of our local business people realize that by supporting one another, we are able to impact one another’s lives on a positive economic scale. For our small-town life, this is crucial.
Conclusion
We hope we have shown how important the forests are to our beautiful community and how supporting the local forest industries are so impactful. We also hope you are now ready to enjoy a cozy fire whether indoors or outside. (If outside, toast a marshmallow for us!)
If you are interested in purchasing firewood from us, we do deliver within 20 miles of Shy Beaver Boat Launch at Lake Raystown, Pennsylvania (our establishment is nearby the boat launch). Delivery areas include: Aitch, Broad Top City, Calvin, Cassville, Claysburg, Curryville, Defiance, Dudley, Entriken, Hesston, Hopewell, Huntingdon, James Creek, Marklesburg, Martinsburg, McConnellstown, New Enterprise, Roaring Spring, Robertsdale, Saltillo, Saxton, Seven Points, Six Mile Run, Three Springs, Todd, Williamsburg, Woodbury, and many other areas around the Raystown Lake Recreation Area. If you don’t see your town on the list and are located near the Lake, just ask and we’ll let you know.
Please CLICK HERE to see our firewood page listing our products and pricing. We deliver to residences, businesses, and to visiting campers and weekenders. Hope to hear from you soon!
Sources of Information:
Websites:
EPA.gov
Extension.psu.edu
Nab.usace.army.mil/Raystown/
Wikipedia.org
Books:
Bridgewater, Alan & Gill. The Self-Sufficiency Handbook. Skyhorse Publishing, New York, NY. 2007. ISBN-10: 1-60239-163-7 ISBN-13: 978-1-60239-163-5.
Hoadley, R. Bruce. Understanding Wood. The Taunton Press, Newtown, CT. 2000. ISBN 978-1-56158-358-4.
Vivian, John. Wood Heat. Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA. 1976. ISBN 0-87857-131-0.
Additional Information:
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